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ast Thursday, most of New Zealand’s teachers were on strike. Teachers’ unions representatives say that the action was necessary to press their claim for better pay and working conditions. Read more

You may recall New Zealand’s sixteen former Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) being merged to form the mega-Polytech, Te Pūkenga. But if you do, it is a false memory. Read more

Last week, documents came to light under the Official Information Act, showing that the Ministry of Education has been putting pressure on NZQA to make new literacy and numeracy requirements for NCEA easier to attain. It's not hard to see why Ministry officials are worried. Read more

New Zealand’s school curriculum has things exactly backwards. Let me explain. Read more

The most effective policy ideas are not always the most glamourous. In education, there are so many problems that, even having decided on a policy programme, the challenges faced by a Minister in getting it implemented are daunting. Read more

Parliament’s Environment Committee is currently considering the Government’s woeful replacement Bills for the Resource Management Act. Eric Crampton and I appeared before the Committee last week to speak to the New Zealand Initiative’s submission on the Natural and Build Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill. Read more

It’s no secret that New Zealand’s compulsory education system is in disarray. Even worse, it’s hard to know where to begin to enact reform. Read more

New Zealand’s education system is in a state of deep malaise. For more than two decades, the literacy and numeracy achievement of our young people has been declining. Read more

I hated sitting exams at school and university. I would break out in sweats and get the shakes. Read more